Successful night for Bray at the All Ireland Community and Council Awards 2019
The Bray Air Display and the ‘Summer in Bray’ tourism initiative have won Silver at The All Ireland Community and Council Awards which are presented by IPB Insurance and LAMA.
The awards which recognise and celebrate community and councils working together, took place on Saturday, February 9th at Croke Park Stadium in Dublin. With RTÉ’s Marty Morrissey at the helm as the evening’s MC, the event recognised the cream of the crop of projects and initiatives from the communities and councils around Ireland.
Cllr. Pat Vance, Cathaoirleach of Bray Municipal District said ‘I’m really delighted that both the Bray Air Display and the ‘Summer in Bray’ tourism initiative have been honoured. To be recognised like this is a true testament to the team’s hard work. It shows that Bray has a winning formula and is seen as making a significant contribution to Irish tourism. It is a real team effort and I would like to thank the many contributors for their loyalty, support, enthusiasm, dedication and passion.’
About the awards
The All Ireland Community and Council Awards presented by IPB Insurance and LAMA, highlight and recognise communities and councils working together, bringing national recognition to projects and developments that may otherwise go unrecognised. A Town, Borough, City and County Councillors across the island of Ireland nominate projects across 20 categories that demonstrate the work implemented through unique projects that enhance their local area for the good of the community.
Bray was shortlisted in four categories including:
- Bray.ie for the ‘Best Connected Council’– Communications and Digital Marketing category
- The Bray Air Display for the Best Tourism Initiative category
- Summer in Bray campaign for the Best Arts/Culture (incl. festivals & events) category
- Multi-agency emergency response to the gorse fire on Bray Head for the Emergency Response Person/Team of the Year category
About Bray.ie
Bray.ie was launched back in 2011. It was part of the Bray Town’s Economy Think Tank outputs. BETT (Bray Economic Think Tank) was an economic forum established in 2009 its aim was to create a sense of local pride, community spirit and to promote Bray as an ideal place to live, work and do business.
Bray.ie endeavours to promote Bray to its fullest as a great place to live, work and visit. It is done by being actively involved in the community while championing local news, amenities, local authority resources, community events, tourism initiatives and campaigns.
Since launching the bray.ie website it has had over +940k visits and 2.6 million page views. In 2018 its social media reach was +3.4 million, with a weekly reach of +65k and a 14% increase year on year in website traffic.
In February 2018 bray.ie was shortlisted for ‘Best Connected Council‘ at the All-Ireland Community & Council Awards. We won the award in 2017. Read more: https://bray.ie/bray-ie-wins-best-connected-community-award/.
Our 2018 full year infographic can be downloaded here: https://bray.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Bray.ie-Stats-infographic-2018-FY-v1-up-to-Dec-17-LR.pdf.
About the Bray Air Display
The award-winning Bray Air Display has been established as a hugely anticipated and popular event in the summer festival calendar. The event is renowned as one of Europe’s best aerobatic displays and seeks to encourage young people to consider an exciting career in aviation.
The event started in 2005 and 13 years on the event now attracts tens of thousands of spectators; up to 140,000 people made their way to Bray Promenade in 2018 to wonder at incredible feats of aviation and mind-boggling aerobatic displays against a backdrop of beautiful Bray head and the County Wicklow coastline.
The two-day aviation spectacle – an aerobatic feast for the senses took place on Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th July 2018.
As well as the astounding, daredevil aerobatic displays there was live music, a funfair as well as a food and craft village – all in all, a great family weekend.
The main objective is to promote and encourage tourism from the domestic and international markets, to maximise the economic benefits of this while raising the profile of aviation and to generate interest in the industry.
It was recognised as ‘Best Festival / Event Experience over 50,000 people’ at the prestigious, national Irish Tourism Industry Awards 2017 and in 2018 we won Silver in the ‘Best Tourism Initiative’ category at the All-Ireland Community and Council Awards.
In 2018 the event team posted over 300 individual posts combined with images, videos, aircraft and event info:
- The Hashtag #BrayAirDisplay trended on Twitter over the event weekend.
- 5.3m #BrayAirDisplay hashtag impressions.
- Social media reach in 2018 was 4.6 million up 1.58m YOY.
- There were 164k visits to our website: http://brayairdisplay.comup 5% YOY.
The event returns this summer – Saturday July 27th and Sunday July 28th 2019.
About ‘Here comes the summer’ – Summer In Bray tourism initiative
Municipal District of Bray and Bray Chamber launched a summer tourism campaign which was called ‘Here comes the summer’ for 2018. The strategy aimed to promote Bray as the ultimate summer destination with a whopping 20 events & also highlighted that there’s so much to discover in the much-loved seaside resort.
The campaign goals were to help boost Bray’s image, showcase our tourism offer, culture and the incredible experiences that you can’t get anywhere else – alongside highlighting the many places to shop, eat, drink and relax in.
The three main priorities where:
- Build awareness that Bray is a vibrant place to visit & stay in
- Encourage return visits
- Provide a series of free events that were family-friendly
Our messaging focused on the strengths of the town: ‘From watching Outdoor Movies under the stars to enjoying all the fun of the fair at the Seafront Fun Fair, from tasting finger-lickin’ chicken wings at Wings Food Fest, to experiencing Ireland’s biggest Air Display…… this summer Bray is packed full of incredible experiences that you can’t get anywhere else, why not come explore us!’
The events ran from early June to mid-September and really showcased Bray as a vibrant place to visit.
The initiative was supported by a poster, radio, social media campaign and managed by the bray.ie dedicated online team. Read more about the initiative here: https://bray.ie/herecomesthesummer18/.
About the multi-agency emergency response to the gorse fire on Bray Head
Back in July firefighters battled with a major gorse fire on Bray Head, which forced people out of their homes and disrupted train services. It is believed the fire broke out beside a tent before spreading along the steep ground – and as a result, debris blocked train lines.
There was a multi-agency approach with the Wicklow Fire Service, the Civil Defence, An Garda Síochána and the Irish Air Corps who worked tirelessly over a number of days in order to make the area safe again.
Emergency services tackled the major blaze in very difficult conditions over a number of days in July 2018. Smoke was also reported to be heading over Bray town as a result of the large blaze.
The Air Corps dumped more than 150,000 litres of water on Bray Head during a two-day operation to stop a wildfire that devastated sections of the popular hiking trail.
The damage could have been more severe had it not been for their hard work, and the foresight of emergency response teams. We are full of praise and gratitude for the firefighters for their efforts. We are proud to have a team of caring, compassionate and dedicated people.
Join the conversation – The event hashtag is #LAMAAwards19
All Ireland Community and Council AwardsTwitter handle– @LAMAAwards https://twitter.com/LAMAAwards
All Ireland Community and Council Awards website: http://lamaawards.org
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